One Model for Distance Legal Education:
A Work in Progress
Legal Information Institute
Cornell Law School
Peter W. Martin
Jane M.G. Foster Prof. of Law &
Co-Director Legal Information Institute, Cornell
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One Model for Distance Legal Education:
A Work in Progress
I. Introduction: The Courses and Students
II. Breaking Out of the Classroom's Constraints
III. Pacing and Accountability in Asynchronous Instruction
IV. Other Challenges and Next Steps
I. Introduction: The Courses and Students
The Courses: Copyright Law and Social Security
My Pedagogical Aims: Quite conventional for courses of this sort
The Students: Experienced upper level law students enrolled in full-time law studies
II. Breaking Out of the Classroom's Constraints
The Key Components: As they related to the absent classroom meetings
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The on-demand, endlessly patient, on-line law teacher
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Tight integration of discussion and core texts
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Class sessions shaped to the topic
Some Expected Gains:
Interactivity?
III. Pacing and Accountability in Asynchronous Instruction
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Pacing through accountability
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Opportunity for self-appraisal
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Framework for student-student interaction
Some Hidden Functions of Scheduled Class Meetings:
Techniques for Pursuing These Same Ends in an Asynchronous Learning Environment
IV. Other Challenges and Next Steps
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Cultural barriers appear to represent more serious obstacles than technology or cost.
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These are intended to be prototypes for other courses, to be built at Cornell and elsewhere.
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They are constructed of reusable components.
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Their modularity and subject matter should allow for versioning.
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Our ambition is that they represent a modest, responsible experiment from which there should be much to learn.
